Editing Gustav Holst (section)

===Professional musician===
[[File:HolstStatue.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=outdoor full length statue showing Holst conducting|Statue of Holst at his birthplace, [[Cheltenham]]. He is shown with the baton in his left hand, his frequent practice because of the [[neuritis]] in his right arm.<ref>Holst (1981), p. 60</ref>]]
In 1898 the RCM offered Holst a further year's scholarship, but he felt that he had learned as much as he could there and that it was time, as he put it, to "learn by doing".<ref name=ih198123/> Some of his compositions were published and performed; the previous year ''[[The Times]]'' had praised his song "Light Leaves Whisper", "a moderately elaborate composition in six parts, treated with a good deal of expression and poetic feeling".<ref>{{cite news|title=The Hospital for Women|newspaper=The Times|date=26 May 1897|page=12}}</ref>

Occasional successes notwithstanding, Holst found that "man cannot live by composition alone";<ref name=archive/> he took posts as organist at various London churches, and continued playing the trombone in theatre orchestras. In 1898 he was appointed first trombonist and ''[[répétiteur]]'' with the [[Carl Rosa Opera Company]] and toured with the [[Royal Scottish National Orchestra|Scottish Orchestra]]. Though a capable rather than a virtuoso player he won the praise of the leading conductor [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]], for whom he played at Covent Garden.<ref>Short, p. 34; and Holst (1969), p. 20</ref> His salary was only just enough to live on,<ref name=ih198127>Holst (1981), p. 27</ref> and he supplemented it by playing in a popular orchestra called the "White Viennese Band", conducted by Stanislas Wurm.<ref>Short, p. 28</ref>

Holst enjoyed playing for Wurm, and learned much from him about drawing [[rubato]] from players.<ref>Holst (1969), p. 15</ref>{{refn|Imogen Holst recounts an occasion when Holst was persuaded to relax his teetotalism. Fuelled by a single glass of champagne he played on his trombone the [[piccolo]] part during a waltz, to Wurm's astonishment and admiration.<ref name=h196916/>|group=n}} Nevertheless, longing to devote his time to composing, Holst found the necessity of playing for "the Worm" or any other light orchestra "a wicked and loathsome waste of time".<ref>Holst (1981), p. 28</ref> Vaughan Williams did not altogether agree with his friend about this; he admitted that some of the music was "trashy" but thought it had been useful to Holst nonetheless: "To start with, the very worst a trombonist has to put up with is as nothing compared to what a church organist has to endure; and secondly, Holst is above all an orchestral composer, and that sure touch which distinguishes his orchestral writing is due largely to the fact that he has been an orchestral player; he has learnt his art, both technically and in substance, not at second hand from text books and models, but from actual live experience."<ref name=vwml/>

With a modest income secured, Holst was able to marry Isobel; the ceremony was at Fulham Register Office on 22 June 1901. Their marriage lasted until his death; there was one child, [[Imogen Holst|Imogen]], born in 1907.<ref>Holst (1969), p. 29</ref> On 24 April 1902 [[Daniel Eyers Godfrey|Dan Godfrey]] and the [[Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra|Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra]] premiered Holst's symphony ''The Cotswolds'' (Op. 8), the slow movement of which is a lament for William Morris who had died in October 1896, three years before Holst began work on the piece.<ref>Dickinson (1957), p. 37</ref> In 1903 Adolph von Holst died, leaving a small legacy. Holst and his wife decided, as Imogen later put it, that "as they were always hard up the only thing to do was to spend it all at once on a holiday in Germany".<ref>Holst (1969), p. 24</ref>